Karen Bachner

Karen Lynn (Née Prokes) Bachner was born in mid-November 1946.

She was raised by parents Ed and Mary Ann Prokes in their Berwyn bungalow.

After graduation from Morton High School, she worked downtown for a law firm.

Motorola then brought her in as an executive secretary.

There she met a summer-student engineer; the next summer she began dating Edward Bachner, III.

They married on September 13, 1969.

Three months later they were both transferred to a Motorola office in Cleveland. One year later they were transferred to a new Motorola office in Harrisburg PA. A year and a half later, and pregnant, they were transferred back to Motorola Chicago.

Over the next 18 years they raised their son in Berwyn, Westchester and Carol Stream, then sent him off to Marquette University and moved to a home in Homer Glen.

Karen was quite active in church and volunteer activities. (She also traveled with her husband on various domestic and international trips

-- some business related, and some purely personal). Their friends over the years have enriched their religious beliefs and practices,

preparing a path for the period of separation as one transitions on the journey to God, ahead of their partner.

Karen was gifted in the way she could be ‘present’ to a woman who was facing death; somehow she just brought peace to each person.

Karen’s death was anticipated. After beating four separate cancers over her years, she was finally overwhelmed by pancreatic cancer.

She went to heaven early on Tuesday, December 14, holding her husband‘s hand. The day before, she had been visited by extended

family and many close friends. She will be held in our hearts...